Though we found ourselves wishing the gameplay and story had just a little more depth and variety, the game's definitely captivating. Carefully crafted and full of charm, Bastion is irresistible.

Best Xbox Live game ever made? Yeppers. Best first-person shooter this year? Indeed. [Dec 2003, p.54]

It's focused tightly on perfectly re-creating the atmosphere and physics of Rally driving, without any arcade-y distractions. [Jan 2003, p.69]

Without any significant, newly added gameplay beyond a single additional optional tomb, we still find ourselves wishing for more side areas to explore and less of the game’s insistence on nudging us in the ribs about the locations of collectibles and secrets. Still, there’s no denying that Definitive Edition is the best way to experience Lara’s origin story for those who haven’t yet pick-axed their way through this incredibly surefooted reboot.

Wrapped around the entire single-and-multiplayer package is, again, some of the best presentation in any Xbox 360 game to date...With single-player delivering another snipe-'em-if-ya-got-'em ride and multiplayer upping the ante with its everything-you-could-imagine delivery, GRAW2 easily achieves must-play status. [Apr 2007, p.54]

Seemingly cognizant of how tough it can be, the game gives you an extra bottle of health-restoring painkillers for every few times you restart at the same spot, but the situation is gratingly exacerbated by Max Payne 3's erratic checkpoint system. More often than not, you'll have to replay painfully long stretches of white-knuckle sequences, turning levels into chores, not treats.

Skate finds the sweet spot between boring simulation and hyper-realism--then totally owns it. [Nov 2007, p.98]

NHL 12 is an improvement over last year's game, but hardly a revolutionary title. It's the best hockey game on Xbox 360 - though, of course, it's also the only hockey game on 360.

Whereas we loved DC2 and its routines with a fierce consciousness, Dance Central 3 infiltrated our bodies without our knowing it. [Dec 2012, p.80]

"Quotation Forthcoming"

It offers a clever Deniable Ops mode, a co-op campaign that’s equal or superior to the solo section, and best of all, a solo campaign with lots of excellent missions in unique locations threaded by the series’ best narrative.

In a crowded holiday season, however--and in a year when racing fans have already been satiated by the stellar likes of "Dirt" and "Forza 2"--this more-or-less "do over" of "PGR3" is a bit disappointing, despite how good it actually is. [Dec 2007, p.72]

Yes, NHL 08 can feel challenging and hard, but it rewards you with the sport's best representation in videogame form that we've seen yet. [Oct 2007, p.73]

Dynasty Mode is NHL 2004's best feature. It's literally an RPG. [Oct 2003, p.80]

Live is quite simply the best-controlling basketball game ever. Player control is unprecedented. [Dec 2003, p.152]

Ultimately, GHIII succeeds as a polished technical workout for top-tier shredders, but the game's magic was never really about pressing buttons anyway--it was about making the player feel like, well, a guitar hero. Now, we just feel unworthy. [Dec 2007, p.64]

Almost the definition of a triple-A title. It's got everthing - good online play, amazingly fun and addictive action, options up the wazoo, a graphics engine that will make your eyes well up - and it's all polished to a glistening shine... It's a spectacle to behold. [March 2005, p.32]

Much more evolutionary than revolutionary, but the series remains one of the 360's finest sports sims. [Apr 2011, p.74]

It's a fine set of fresh experiences for Modern Warfare 3. If the rest of the year's DLC is this strong, consider that Elite subscription well worth the investment.

Guardian of Light plays out like a deftly crafted, fun piece of arcade-style shooting and puzzling expressly made for buddy co-op night on Live. Who knew Lara was such a team player?

Visually, Aggressive Inline is up there with the best of them. The levels are loaded with small details, all of which can be interacted with in some way. [Oct 2002, p.104]

Perhaps the biggest change is the addition of a BMX bike, which gives you a new way to attack courses. Sadly, you can't ride it in the main game, but it's still a welcome addition, as it controls drastically different than the other bikes and looks totally ridiculous with the rider constantly pedaling.

Just think of Double Agent as the least amazing Splinter Cell yet, rather than the worst game in the series - because it's simply not. It's the gutsiest, and the chances it takes (but doesn't quite nail) give the series room to evolve into something better than could've possibly imagined to iterations ago. [Dec 2006, p.70]

It really is like the developers played every PC shooter from "Doom" through "Quake" and "Half-Life," even "Sin" and "Soldier of Fortune," and applied cool elements from them all into this package. [Nov 2005, p.112]

Complementing the on-field awesomeness is Year Two of online franchise mode. It’s better than before — you can even manage it from EA’s website or from your iPhone — and we encountered no issues during our testing.

Nevertheless, at it's reduced price, Continuum Shift is undoubtedly the definitive version for newbies and vets alike. [Oct 2010, p.77]

World Tour is a big leap in content and polish over last year’s game, but we’re disappointed by a few unsatisfying creative calls. The extended song endings aren’t always enhancements, the unlockable gear doesn’t match the effort put forth to earn it, and we prefer Rock Band 2’s looser career-unlock structure. Most of all, Rock Band 2 simply feels more musical and organic; we get the suspicion that some World Tour songs had notes added to their charts simply to make them trickier, and not because the music suggested it.

The game is absolutely brilliant. [July 2002, p.74]